Free Farm Friends pack for newsletter subscribers →Somewhere in Wild Atlas there's a hidden pack of friendly creatures from the world's old stories. It can't be bought. It can only be found. This is the treasure map.
- The Mythical Menagerie is a secret pack of 18 gentle, storybook creatures.
- Catch seven shooting stars and the Stargazer opens the gate.
- Stars wander in on their own, or you can summon them at ten hidden waypoints. Five are on this map. The rest are yours to find.
- Three waypoints need a grown-up. Nothing expires, and most families get there in a week or two of ordinary play.
- The Mythical Menagerie is currently available in English only.
More than once, a young explorer has asked us about mermaids. About unicorns. About a fox with nine tails. These are real questions, so we built real answers: eighteen friendly creatures from the world's old stories, in a hidden pack called the Mythical Menagerie.
They're not animals a field guide can pin down as fact, so we didn't put them on the map with the rest. We hid them instead, behind a small magical quest that only a watchful explorer completes. Find your way in, and the Stargazer will tell you each one's tale himself.
This is the field guide to finding them.
What you're actually hunting
The gatekeeper of the hidden pack is a kindly old creature called the Stargazer: a snow-owl with round spectacles, a starry hat, and a wand tipped with a single point of light. He opens the gate only for explorers who've been paying attention to the sky.
Here's his secret. Every so often, a shooting star streaks across Wild Atlas. Catch one, with a real tap right on the star as it flies, and you collect a stardust shard. Collect seven shards, and the Stargazer decides you're ready.
Go on. Try catching one.
Some stars you wait for. Most, if you know where to look, you can summon.
Friendly by design
✦ Every creature in the Menagerie is a friendly one.
While building the pack, we tried it out with young explorers. A few old legends, like the werewolf and Bigfoot, were a bit too spooky for small listeners, so we left them in the old stories.
What's inside is wise, gentle and occasionally mischievous, gathered from folktales across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe: a kind Kirin from China, a gentle Simurgh from Persia, a phoenix from ancient Egypt and a selkie from the Scottish shore.
Shooting stars in the sky
You never know exactly when a shooting star will cross the real sky. It's the same in Wild Atlas. They show up from time to time while you play, never right when you open the app, but somewhere along the way if you stay and explore.
You can catch one star per visit. If one flies past before you tap it, don't worry: it may swing back around later in the same visit. And if today's sky stays quiet, try again another day.
It's the seventh star that changes everything. The instant you catch it, the world goes to twilight. Snow begins to drift, gold and white stars burst across the screen, and the Stargazer himself appears, spectacles gleaming, to open the gate.
You found the hidden pack no one could buy their way into. That's the whole point: it belongs to the explorers who looked closely.
Shooting stars you can find
Wild Atlas hides shooting stars in plain sight, tucked into gestures and small triumphs all over the app. Reach a waypoint and a star streaks down on the spot. Each one gives a star once.
There are ten in all. Here are five to get you started.
1. The mascot at the trailhead
Look at the friendly face on the home screen. Tap it once and it wiggles hello. Everybody knows that. Almost nobody knows what happens if you tap it twice, quickly. A star.
2. Your name in the logbook
Open your Achievements page, your explorer's logbook. Your name sits right at the top, and most people read straight past it. Tap your own name, and the sky answers.
3. A word to the rangers (grown-up's help)
Found a bug? Have an idea, or a creature you wish we'd add? Send us feedback through the in-app form, with a grown-up's help to get past the gate. Explorers who leave word for the rangers are thanked the Stargazer's way: with a falling star.
4. Rate the expedition (grown-up's help)
When Wild Atlas asks how you're enjoying the journey, or any time a grown-up taps Rate Wild Atlas, a star follows. It lives behind a grown-up's tap, so it's a lovely one to catch together.
5. The collector's key (grown-up's help)
The deepest waypoint. When a grown-up unlocks a new pack, picks up the Explorer Pass, or redeems a code, the sky throws its biggest welcome: a shooting star, right there in the moment.
The other five? They're yours to find.
They're hidden in quizzes and games, in far corners of the app, and in places that reward a curious finger. We're not drawing those on the map. Keep your eyes open.
Meet a resident: the Kitsune
In stories from Japan, the kitsune is a clever fox-spirit who can shape-shift into almost anything. Some are kind helpers. Others are gentle tricksters who light the forest with floating balls of foxfire.
Storytellers say a kitsune grows a new tail every hundred years. When it has nine, its fur turns silver or gold and it becomes one of the wisest creatures in the world. The one waiting in the Menagerie has all nine.
A peek inside the hidden pack
Nine of the eighteen creatures waiting behind the gate:
A short dispatch for grown-ups
- It's a real hunt, not a checklist with a deadline. Most families reach seven shards over a week or two of ordinary play. Nothing expires, and there's nothing to miss.
- Three waypoints need you. Feedback, rating and unlocking a pack all sit behind the grown-up gate, so those stars are ones you catch together. No child gets nudged toward a store on their own.
- Each waypoint gives one star, once. They can't be farmed. The design rewards discovering a place, not hammering it.
- It's a good rainy-afternoon quest. Work through the five waypoints above together, then go looking for the other five.
One last whisper: the Menagerie isn't the only thing Wild Atlas keeps hidden. Every pack has a secret treasure tucked among its animals, waiting for an explorer with a sharp eye and a magnifying glass. But that's a different expedition.
Watch the sky. We'll see you out there.